First thing's first: I didn't grow up with this game. I know that GOG has this funny habit of giving every game they remembered playing as a kid a 5/5 and turning every CRPG on this site from the last 40 years into a 10/10 GOAT CLASSIC, but this isn't that. That said, I love this game. I bought the 2E books just to better understand this game. I ended up running 2E for my friends (still my preferred edition). You don't need any of that though. It is about as distilled down as the zero-to-Hero power fantasy gets. Romping through dungeons and getting magic loot that actually feels better, traveling a mostly contiguous openworld map with little if any handholding, managing a party of up to 6 from a roster of like 30!? It starts to feel more like fantasy Jagged Alliance 2 than a CRPG sometimes. You'll start killing rats in Candlekeep and end up battling the (hopeful) Avatar of a dark god below the bowels of a major city (and if you take your character through to BG2 and Throne of Bhaal, the stakes become even higher and the reward of completing the journey even more satisfying and epic in scope). That said, I go back to this one more than BG2 or 3 on any given day. Story is there but largely unintrusive, class mechanics and spell lists are small scale enough to not be a headache to manage 6 separate ones, its fast and furious and fun. As far as EE vs original goes, just get the fanmade Nostalgia UI and Sprites pack from the beamdog forums and the original videos to replace beamdog's honestly embarrassing tweened animations. Done, you've now get the best version of one of the best RPGs of all time.
